The French Chateau: Life, Style, Tradition

The French Château provides a privileged view into the special world that lies within France's grand historic houses; a view hitherto afforded only to a select circle of the French aristocracy and their friends.

These stately residences are not dusty uninhabited museums,
but real homes. Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery, herself born and brought up in her family's magnificent property at Montfort-le-Rotrou, takes us across France to visit the great châteaux she knows so well, giving us an intimate view of the unique way of life that goes on in them through the seasons.

We attend a wedding at Jean de Beistegui's Château de Groussay; we see the drawing-rooms, bedrooms, linen-room, hot-house and orangery of Le Lude; we visit the Château d'Haroue in Lorraine as guests of the Princesse de Beauvau-Craon; we follow the hunt with the Marquis and Marquise de Brissac, returning for dinner to the Château de Brissac. Baron Eric de Rothschild opens his cellars to us at Château Lafite. We celebrate the onset of winter with a boar hunt at the Château de Courances, lunching in the forest in the company of the Marquis and Marquise de Ganay.

The magnificent colour photographs of Jean-Bernard Naudin capture all the beauty and charm of these châteaux and the elegant lifestyle of their inhabitants.